Burletta
by MissCuriousBird
Summary: Enma Kozato is in his final year of Junior high school. He hoped that the year will go by smoothly with little trouble, but life is never that helpful and there's always that one person you meet who throws everything you hope for out the window and reminds you why people are such idiots these days. And he just so happened to come across that one person after tripping over a napkin.


**Larghissimo**

"Dude, did you trip, or did you just attack the floor?"

Kozato Enma swears there is something wrong with this girl, even though he has only just glanced at her for a few seconds before seeing black. Normal people would ask if he was okay after a trip like that, but he was used to this, tripping and being embarrassed, so he supposed it doesn't make much of a difference to him. He thought he would have grown out of this phase a year ago, but it seems like the floor just _misses_ him too dearly to ever really let him go unscathed.

"Uh. Don't wanna sound stupid or anything, but you gonna get up or just lay there like a sack of meat?" A pause. "But if you find the concrete comfortable, I ain't complaining."

He sighs inwardly before using his elbows to prop his upper body up. He can taste blood. It's that oh-so familiar taste of iron he hates. Using his sleeve, he wipes it away from his mouth before using his tongue to swipe the remains off his teeth. He can never get used to that taste. His fingers gingerly touch his nose and he breathes a sigh of relief that it's not broken. Again. Adelheid always lectures him on being careful and Aoba always harasses him about being weak despite the fact Enma was his boss.

He hears a sigh, a feminine one from above him, before he is abruptly pulled onto his feet. He looks awkwardly at the girl and nods in thanks. She merely smiles back.

"Midori Umiko."

He stares at her before uttering a confused, "Pardon?"

She rolls her eyes. "That's my name. I thought it was obvious."

He mutters an apology – something he's grown far too accustomed to doing in his life – and silence falls between them. It's awkward. Well, for him it is. She seemed rather content on just staring at him. He doesn't know if he should say thank you again and leave in a hurry – well, it's not like he really had anywhere to be currently. Adelheid would most likely dote on him in that tough way of hers and, after much assurance and teasing from Julie, he'd go to his room to read or something.

Or perhaps he'd continue to stand there in that awkward silence and wait. Julie has always told him he should wait things out and see what happens, though Enma never understood the likeliness of something interesting happening to him. After all, he _was_ 'Loser Enma'. Aside from mafia related incidents – many of which he would like to forget completely – not many _normal_ incidents were interesting enough for him to remember.

"So, you gonna tell me your name?"

"Huh?"

Snapping out of his thoughts, Enma looks to the girl again, giving her his full attention. She gives him a frown and Enma could feel his face slightly burning in embarrassment.

"Your. Name." she enunciates the words slowly, as if he were a mere baby – he strongly opposes such a tone of voice directed at him, but he can't complain because he's heard worse – then she arches an eyebrow, "Unless you want me to call you 'Mr. Awkward'. If so, I ain't got a problem with that."

"No." he quickly says, a light warmth tingling his cheeks in embarrassment again, "My name is Kozato Enma."

That's when she grins brightly at him, as if he had just said the best thing in the world. Sticking her hand out, she tilts her head.

"It's nice to meet you, Enma." A pause, then a frown, "Oh wait, did you want me to call you by your _first_ name or your _last_ name? I haven't been in Japan for a long while so I'm getting the honorifics all jumbled up and crap." She rolls her eyes and shakes her head; as if she's unhappy with herself, "Let me tell ya, a lot of people get offended when I say the wrong name."

He nods slowly; a little unsure of what he should say. "Either is fine."

She nods her head. "Cool. You can just call me Umi." Another pause. "And don't call me Midori. It feels weird when people call me that. Makes me sound old."

Reluctantly, Enma nods. He's been in Japan for at least two years now and has grown accustomed to their honorifics. It'll be hard to drop it.

Umi repeats it again, insisting that he calls her just 'Umi', almost as if she knew what he was thinking, before she glances into the café they're outside of, a thoughtful expression on her face. Enma takes the moment to look her over. She has short, messy white hair and blue eyes and a pale complexion. She wore ripped jeans, knee high black boots, and a red T-shirt.

She looked like every other teenager Enma's seen. He found her hair color to stand out the most. It was rather odd since such a color in hair was normally seen with the elderly, but she looked no older than he did, perhaps a year or two. What could he really say about it though? Gokudera Hayato had silver hair and Enma himself had bright red hair with matching red eyes. He really should not judge her on her hair color.

He feels a nudge, and his red eyes find their way to her blue ones. She grins.

"You want an ice-coffee or something?" she asks.

He raises an eyebrow in question and finds himself asking, "Why?"

She shrugs her shoulders and sends him a nonchalant look. "Just thought we could chat or something. I'm pretty sure your face still hurts from hitting the ground, so maybe you could have a drink to take the pain off your mind." She glances at his unsure expression and snorts, "Though if you'd rather not, that's perfectly fine. No need to give such an expression."

At her words, Enma shakes his head. "Sorry," he says quickly in apology, though he doesn't know what he's actually apologizing for. Maybe because her tone of voice made him feel like he was at fault, though from her expression he was sure he wasn't because she looked almost amused. He looks down at his feet and shuffles them a bit in the silence that takes them again. He's debating on her invitation.

Julie did always tell him to socialize more often. So did Tsuna, but after watching the Vongola Decimo flail around and scream at the terror of what his guardians do, Enma can't be sure if he actually wants to socialize that much. Or maybe he does. He doesn't really know. But Enma finds something peculiarly off about Umi, and he can't quite pin it down. It's like it's on the tip of his tongue, a familiar word to describe her, but it's unspeakable and feels like it brings trouble.

He glances at her and now she's looking at her phone, a frown working its way onto her face. She looks back at him and sighs.

"Forget what I said." She says then pauses, before smiling at him. "I'll treat ya next time I see you, yeah? To make up for tripping you."

Her words sink in to his brain and Enma stares at her. "Excuse me?"

And it was in that moment Enma notices that little mischievous glint in her eyes, the kind he often saw in that Arcobaleno that always hangs around Tsuna, that dangerous glint that was often followed by something horrible happening. Combined with the grin coiling at her mouth, Enma thinks she looks positively _insane_.

"Yeah, I accidentally tripped you there with my napkin. But I _swear_ I'll make up for it next time I see you." She laughs and claps him on the shoulder in a friendly manner – an awkward thing for Enma, really, because no one other than his family and Tsuna has ever done that to him – before saluting to him, turning away to walk down the street. "It was nice meeting you Enma. Try not to trip so awkwardly next time, okay?"

When she has disappeared from view, Enma lets out a sigh and shakes his head.

He really hopes he doesn't see her again.


End file.
